Updates on the California bus crash

• Get all the latest updates on the bus crash involving Southern Calfornia students in Orland, Calif.

CHICO — Arthur Arzola had a passion for helping low-income children get into college, making some of them the first in their families to do so.

That’s the mission the 26-year-old Rancho Cucamonga man was on Thursday while riding with high school students to Humboldt State University. But the University of La Verne graduate student and nine other people were killed in a fiery crash before making it to the campus for the university’s Spring Preview for prospective students.

“It’s sad for our program, its sad for the university and it’s sad for our profession,” said Adonay Montes, assistant professor for University of La Verne’s school counselor preparation program. “We have lost a wonderful being with such great potential who was going to be able to help kids out there achieve their dreams.”

Arzola had worked as an admissions counselor for Humboldt State University for the last year, and served that role in the Los Angeles area, officials said.

“Arzola is remembered by colleagues at Humboldt State for his passionate commitment to helping low-income and first-generation students get into college. He dedicated his career to that work,” Humboldt university posted on its website.

He was one month away from completing his master’s degree in educational counseling at the University of La Verne and was a 2010 graduate of Cal State San Bernardino.

“It is with a heavy heart that we receive this news,” said University of La Verne President Devorah Lieberman. “Arthur has been described by his colleagues for his passion and commitment in helping students reach their academic dreams. Our campus community extends our deepest condolences and prayers to his family as well as the other victims involved.”

Montes recalled the last research project that Arzola worked on with him about providing students with financial and other challenges access to college. He developed a comprehensive list of programs available to open that pipeline for them.

He said Arzola liked to talk about seeing the fruits of his labor in his job with Humboldt.

“There’s no better gift that he could have given me than to see he was enjoying the work that he was going to do for the rest of his life,” Montes said.

The fact that he was just beginning his career, newly married and had a promising path ahead of him made the loss even more tragic, mentors and colleagues said.

“He had so much vision for his own future,” said Laurie Schroeder, head of University of La Verne’s Advanced Studies in Education and Human Development department. “I really admired him.”

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Sacramento County coroner’s officials identified Arzola as a Rancho Cucamonga resident, but he indicated on his Facebook page that he lived in Ontario and graduated in 2006 from Don Lugo High School in Chino.

Officials at AMLI at Empire Lakes, a Rancho Cucamonga apartment complex, confirmed Arzola lived at the complex, but declined further comment. He posted on his profile that he worked for In-N-Out Burger in Rancho Cucamonga in 2007. He proposed to his wife, Krystle Arzola in 2011 and married her the following July.